1. Field of the Invention
Example embodiments of the present invention relate to a probe card. More particularly, example embodiments of the present invention relate to a probe card for inspecting a semiconductor substrate.
2. Description of the Related Art
Nowadays, integrated circuit devices are widely used to satisfy consumer demand. Manufacturing technologies have been developed to improve an integration degree, a reliability, a response speed, etc.
Generally, a semiconductor device is formed through a fab process for forming a layer on a semiconductor substrate and for forming a pattern having electrical characteristics by patterning the layer, a probe test process for electrically testing dies having the pattern, a cutting process for cutting the semiconductor substrate into the dies, and a packaging process for packaging the dies.
The probe test process, i.e., an electrical die sorting (EDS) process, is performed after the fab process, but prior to the assembly process in order to inspect electrical properties of the dies formed on the substrate.
The probe test process inspects whether the dies formed on the substrate are electrically ‘good’ or ‘defective.’ The ‘defective’ dies are detected by the probe test process at an early stage and regenerated using a repair process, thereby reducing the costs of the packaging process.
For example, conventional probe test processes are disclosed in Japanese Patent Laid-Open Publication Nos. 1994-120316, 1994-181248 and 1998-150082, and U.S. Pat. No. 5,254,939 issued to Anderson et al., U.S. Pat. No. 5,506,498 issued to Anderson et al., and U.S. Pat. No. 5,866,024 issued to de Villeneuve.
In the probe test process, the electrical properties of the die formed on the substrate are inspected using a probe station including a probe card and a performance board.
The probe card installed in the probe station includes a probe, a circuit board having a circuit electrically connected to the probe, and a reinforcing plate for reinforcing the circuit board to prevent thermal deformation or deflection of the circuit board. However, since a contact area between the circuit board and the reinforcing plate is considerably large, a large amount of heat in a test atmosphere may be transferred between the circuit and the reinforcing plate. Accordingly, the circuit board may be greatly deflected so that the reinforcing plate is deformed by the deflection of the circuit board. The deformed reinforcing plate may cause misalignment of the probe. Therefore, a contact failure between the probe and an object may occur due to the misalignment of the probe.